Preserving stories of the past
- Zanovo translates from Russian as 'from scratch'
- Viktoria and Svetlana's first project was a set of chairs from the 1960s
- They love giving a second life to vintage furniture
Viktoria and Svetlana are long-time friends who have always shared a love of vintage furniture. At some point they both realised they wanted to start a project of their own and work with their hands. As if it they were being given a sign, they soon came across a text about chair restoration and were inspired to do the same thing. Unable to let go of the idea, four months later they rented a workshop, while Svetlana left her job in biotechnology and moved to Voronezh from another city. It was March 2019 and since then Zanovo has grown into a studio that everyone’s talking about. They work for clients all over the country; the most distant order they’ve shipped was to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, over 9,000km away.
Interview
- What inspires your work?
- We are inspired by the story of the objects we work with. It’s basic human curiosity to think about every object’s past. We see how well things were made, often from high quality materials, such as beautiful solid wood. You can tell they were meant to last a long time. We cherish their stories.
- Are you more influenced by tradition or innovation?
- Definitely tradition. We aren’t fond of using colour on wood if there is even a slight chance of keeping to the original idea. Masters of previous centuries chose wood veneer patterns tastefully. Most of the time there is no need for dramatic modifications. Our priority is to show the true beauty of the wood.
- How do you define quality?
- We can always discuss quality in technical terms, but the only thing that matters is how long the piece of furniture has lived before it got to us and how long it is going to live after its renovation. Our goal is to ensure the durability of the object.
- What would you advise young people who want to take up restoration?
- Our advice is universal. If you want to do something new, start doing it right now: Google it, find video lessons, make a plan, find a studio. If you think you want to do restoration, find an old wooden plank and try to sand it down. See how you deal with monotonous tasks; that's a great test.
Svetlana Kiryanova & Viktoria Lantyukhova are rising stars: they began their career in 2019 and they started teaching in 2020
Where
Svetlana Kiryanova & Viktoria Lantyukhova
